Lars Ulrich Slept on My Floor (and other Observations by a Rock Star Photographer)
So Ross Halfin has taken some great images of great hard rock icons. He has also taken great images of fairly pathetic (but famous) hard rock stars. This article covers the opening of a gallery show of his images at the Proud Galleries in London. The article itself has some great quotes:
"Guns'n'Roses looked good in the day. Now Axl looks like a silly old man." I contest that is not entirely true, as when he was younger he was a silly angry man. Axl has not made anything worth listening to since ever (well, a few tracks from Appetite for Destruction were good), and certainly was never as interesting a photo subject as the rather psycho blaxploitation extra meets Muppet Show stagehand that is Slash, or the punk throwback drunken swagger appearance of Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan. Axl always looked like the scrawny geek. Now he's the pudgy geek.
"I worked with Metallica for ten years and now I don't talk to them. I fell out with the drummer. Lars [Ulrich] used to sleep on my floor. Now he's one of those people who would shake my hand but he'd be looking over my shoulder for the next person in the room. He really let me down as a friend but that's the nature of this business." Can't say it surprises me seeing as Lars should be a PR flak or office mailboy, since he cannot play drums to save his life or do anything musical worth a listen. IMHO Lars is a self-absorbed hack who got lucky standing behind a seething James Hetfield. I would like to see Dave Mustaine club him like a baby seal with a Gibson Flying-V for a few hours to straighten the little pastry-head out.
Halfin is rarely excited by the current rock'n'roll crop. When pushed to name a musician he would have liked to photograph, he concedes, "I really regret not shooting Jeff Buckley," Halfin says. "I went to his last show in Melbourne and he was amazing." I can't say I blame him for not being excited, as there is not much in hard rock/metal right now that has the kind of distinct visual impact in comparison to the halycon days of the 70s-early 90s. It isn't that there isn't good stuff, but even I have to say as much as I like the post-punk inspired antics of some of the new groups, the largely than life elements seem largely insincere posturing.
"Guns'n'Roses looked good in the day. Now Axl looks like a silly old man." I contest that is not entirely true, as when he was younger he was a silly angry man. Axl has not made anything worth listening to since ever (well, a few tracks from Appetite for Destruction were good), and certainly was never as interesting a photo subject as the rather psycho blaxploitation extra meets Muppet Show stagehand that is Slash, or the punk throwback drunken swagger appearance of Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan. Axl always looked like the scrawny geek. Now he's the pudgy geek.
"I worked with Metallica for ten years and now I don't talk to them. I fell out with the drummer. Lars [Ulrich] used to sleep on my floor. Now he's one of those people who would shake my hand but he'd be looking over my shoulder for the next person in the room. He really let me down as a friend but that's the nature of this business." Can't say it surprises me seeing as Lars should be a PR flak or office mailboy, since he cannot play drums to save his life or do anything musical worth a listen. IMHO Lars is a self-absorbed hack who got lucky standing behind a seething James Hetfield. I would like to see Dave Mustaine club him like a baby seal with a Gibson Flying-V for a few hours to straighten the little pastry-head out.
Halfin is rarely excited by the current rock'n'roll crop. When pushed to name a musician he would have liked to photograph, he concedes, "I really regret not shooting Jeff Buckley," Halfin says. "I went to his last show in Melbourne and he was amazing." I can't say I blame him for not being excited, as there is not much in hard rock/metal right now that has the kind of distinct visual impact in comparison to the halycon days of the 70s-early 90s. It isn't that there isn't good stuff, but even I have to say as much as I like the post-punk inspired antics of some of the new groups, the largely than life elements seem largely insincere posturing.
posted by theloniusfunk at 1:19 AM
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